Related Articles

When you sign in to Facebook, you automatically appear as available in the site's chat system. This shows your Facebook friends that you're at the computer and online. If you just want to take a quick look at your Facebook profile or are simply not in the mood to communicate, this can be frustrating. However, you don't actually need to advertise your online status to all of your Facebook friends. You can make it appear as though you're away from your computer and Facebook.

1.

Sign in to your Facebook account.

2.

Look to the right side of the Facebook page. You see a chat panel displaying some of your friends. At the bottom of this panel you see three options: "Search," a gear-shaped icon and an icon of an arrow pointing into a rectangle.

3.

Click the gear-shaped icon. This brings up two options: Available to Chat and Chat Sounds.

4.

Click "Available to Chat" to remove the check mark beside this option.

Tip

When you set yourself as unavailable, the chat panel displays a section that says, "You are unavailable to chat. Let friends see you as available?" Click the word "available" in this message to become active on the chat feature again.

Resources (1)

About the Author

Morgan O'Connor has been writing professionally since 2005. Her experience includes articles on various aspects of the health-insurance industry for health-care newsletters distributed to hospitals as well as articles on both international and domestic travel.

Photo Credits

Liquidlibrary/liquidlibrary/Getty Images

bibliography-iconicon for annotation tool Cite this Article

Choose Citation Style

O'Connor, Morgan. "How to Make Yourself Appear Away on Facebook." Small Business - Chron.com, http://smallbusiness.chron.com/make-yourself-appear-away-facebook-27958.html. Accessed 14 August 2018.

O'Connor, Morgan. (n.d.). How to Make Yourself Appear Away on Facebook. Small Business - Chron.com. Retrieved from http://smallbusiness.chron.com/make-yourself-appear-away-facebook-27958.html